Not Allowing Businesses to Miss the “Train” of Sustainable Development

Currently in Vietnam, very few companies have visions for sustainable development at the heart of their business strategies. This concerns people working to promote sustainable development in Vietnam. Looking to the world, sustainable development has become the focus of global agendas. The United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, held in September 2015, adopted 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the 2015-2030 period. Remarkably, this is the first time 193 UN member states strongly urged the business sector to adopt innovative business solutions to address sustainable development challenges.

 

Sadly, while businesses in countries around the world, especially in developed countries, are extremely concerned about sustainable development and consider participating in international forums for sustainable development as an opportunity catch new trends of global business, a majority of companies in Vietnam, with 98 per cent being small and medium in scale, still lack interest in sustainable development. Falling short of resources is just a part of the cause, but a more important part is their poor awareness of how the world is changing and why they must accept changes to not miss competition opportunities. This is a tremendous barrier to Vietnamese businesses when they want to improve their competitiveness in the international arena, especially in the period of integration and sustainable development - basic conditions to boost their brand names in the eyes of consumers.

 

As sustainable development has become a hot story, the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD) is deploying many programmes and projects to bring sustainable development into practice, e.g. the Inclusive Business Programme aimed to end poverty in all its forms everywhere (SDG 1); promoting the adoption of sustainability reporting and corporate sustainability index (CSI) in Vietnam with the aim of promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all (SDG 8); and pushing business transparency and integrity programmes (SDG 16). Particularly, the Integrated Sustainable Agriculture Programme (ISAP) in Vietnam is considered an outstanding and suitable project for Vietnam's economy. This programme aims to support farming households and agricultural and food companies with free access to model transformation consulting and sustainable farming practices, thus contributing to national and global food security towards the achievement of SDG 2.

 

At the meeting with VBCSD members on December 4, 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Chairman of the National Council on Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement, appreciated the recommendations of VCCI/VBCSD to promote the achievement of 17 SDGs in Vietnam. He also instructed ministries, branches and localities to coordinate with VCCI/VBCSD to review and adjust national strategies and action programmes of Vietnam for the 2015 - 2020 period to match 17 SDGs and build the roadmap for implementing Vietnam’s SDGs.

 

It is clear that it is not time to hesitate or to stop moving toward the path of sustainable development. To realise what Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has directed, communication must be first of all positioned and strongly implemented, especially communication on the 17 SDGs in Vietnam. Businesses need to play a proactive role and make an important contribution to the effort to bring the 17 SDGs into reality. Vietnamese companies need to understand that in the context of integration and competition, when Vietnam is participating in the global playing field, investing and implementing sustainable development is a tool and a weapon for them to raise and maintain competitiveness. That is a key factor to support them to win in the new context of competition and a ticket for them not to miss the "train" of sustainable development.